Faculty of Education Students Performed A Folk Play, For Credit












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            On April 20, 2010, students of Czech literature at the Charles University Faculty of Educa

            first (and so far also the last) performance of the Comedy About Felsenburk, The Mighty Kn
            arched cellar of the parish meeting room of the Church of Our Lady of the Snow in Prague. 
            rehearse the performance just for fun – by doing so, they also fulfilled the credit requir

            seminar supervised by Miloš Sládek.

            On the day of the performance, the troupe practiced up until the last moment, because whil

            their lines, it was their first time in the meeting room. Therefore, set moving, exits and
            to be rehearsed. The whole effort was coordinated by Miloš Sládek, who was not only the di

            played the role of one of the spirits, and even managed to double as a prompter and a trea
                                                                                                    
            The play was introduced by a self-deprecating spoof lecture. Miloš                      
            Sládek introduced the history of the play and tried to prepare the                      
            audience for the experience. “Trying to introduce our today's play,                     
                                                                                                    
            I must admit that I feel sorry for you, because you'll witness one                      
            of the worst neighborhood theatre plays ever written. In addition to                    
            that, it will be performed by absolutely inexperienced actors (save                     
                                                                                                    
            for a few exceptions) and directed by a total amateur of a director,                    
            namely myself. You should therefore prepare for something else than                     
            you might have expected. Even if you didn't expect much.”                               
                                                                                                    
            The play was based on the folk reading book Felsenburk the Night,                       
            Or the Liberator of 12 Cursed Spirits. The original German tale was                     
            (rather poorly) adapted into Czech by Josef Kramář, a weaver and                        
                                                                                                    
            a soldier from the village of Paseky nad Jizerou in the Krkonoše                        
            Mountains region.                                                                       
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
            The first ever performance of the play took place in Paseky and is mentioned in the memoir

            violin maker Věnceslav Metelka. “Metelka is usually very kind to the works of folk culture
            one. He is pretty contemptuous towards it.” says Miloš Sládek. “The language of the play i
            sentences don't even contain an active verb form, using an infinitive instead. You don't h

            that in theatres now. It is not that our actors cannot speak Czech, they're just following
                                                  Even if the audience did not get to hear anything po
                                                  the play, they definitely found it entertaining. The
                                                  good job trying to come to terms with the difficult 
                                                                                                    
                                                  potential mistakes were prevented by the prompter. T
                                                  of the Fool was the highlight of the performance, pl
                                                  Vencl, a 1st year student of the Master's programme 
                                                                                                    
                                                  language and literature and civics. Besides boasting
                                                  comedy, he also has previous theatre experience, eve
                                                  started out specializing exclusively in mute charact
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
            (Lucie Kettnerová)

            Translation: Jaroslav Švelch